Splitting states in the regional boards?

[MNHighwayMan]

I'm pretty new here, so maybe there's a reason for this setup that I'm missing, but why are some states split between different boards? (Minnesota being the obvious one that made me ask.) I don't see why it's useful to do it that way, and in practice, at least for MN, all of the posts seem to end up in one board. I briefly skimmed the Central States board and did not see a single post about Minnesota; they're all in the Great Lakes board, regardless of where they are in the state.

Thoughts?

[froggie]

There was a fairly lengthy thread a few years ago on this subject...might be worth reading it.

[MNHighwayMan]

Should've known this had already come up, thanks! I see why it is the way it is, though I don't necessarily agree with it.

[Plutonic Panda]

Why are the regional boards the way they are? Seems overly complex. Having SW and NW Pennsylvania and then having the whole state of Pennsylvania on two different sections?

I also think Oklahoma should be lumped in with Texas and Arkansas rather than Missouri. It just seems odd.

Here are a couple maps that would make more sense, at least to me


http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/traveleropinions/5.htm


http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/perform_meas/vpds/npmrdsfaqs.htm

Or to really simplify it


http://www.123rf.com/photo_7408647_regions-of-the-continental-united-states--source-public-domain-national-planning-network-http--www-f.html

Though I would personally divide the west up as having the Mountain West as it is now and Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest staying the same. Including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana as their own category as South Central and then the Midwest and Northeast as shown with Southeast minus Arkansas and Louisiana of course.
Post Merge: September 17, 2016, 01:09:02 AM
I have no idea how on earth I did this, but I somehow missed the post right below mine discussing this very thing so if the mods could please merge.

[mrsman]

I commented on the earlier thread about how I think it should be divided, and I do believe that states should not be divided between two different regions.  This would make it easier to have discussions of statewide issues on one board.

But I believe that the original founders of this forum beleived that it would be better to not divide certain metropolitan areas.  For instance, Greater Cincinnati comprises parts of OH, KY, and IN.   THe managers feel that it is better to have all of that within one board, even if other parts of OH (like Cleveland) are in a different board.  On each of the maps posted above, Greater Cincinnati would be split amongst two regions.

So they chose to keep big cities and their suburbs in the same region, at the expense of cutting certain states into multiple regions.

[Alex]

I commented on the earlier thread about how I think it should be divided, and I do believe that states should not be divided between two different regions.  This would make it easier to have discussions of statewide issues on one board.

But I believe that the original founders of this forum beleived that it would be better to not divide certain metropolitan areas.  For instance, Greater Cincinnati comprises parts of OH, KY, and IN.   THe managers feel that it is better to have all of that within one board, even if other parts of OH (like Cleveland) are in a different board.  On each of the maps posted above, Greater Cincinnati would be split amongst two regions.

So they chose to keep big cities and their suburbs in the same region, at the expense of cutting certain states into multiple regions.

The regional boards were originally partitioned based upon how we had the site split. Cody felt that the forum could follow the regional separation the main site had, so states we had under northeast went to the northeast board, mid-atlantic to the md-atlantic board, etc. etc. As things evolved, there was discussion about "well this part of the state is really in this region," and it led to further partitioning, or one state being represented in two regions. Several tweaks have occurred over the years, with the most recent ones shuffling the Mid-South/Central States separation and the western states a few years ago.